Kirev's Door Read Online Free Page A

black eyes and the tattoos visible on his fingers and hands and the exposed parts of his neck above the gray and black tie. Still, thinking about how he got inside again, Kirev found himself wondering if they’d pushed humans into thinking he was here in some official capacity.
    Maybe as private security. Private sec teams utilized uncollared seers anyway, at least while they were working…otherwise they might as well stick to hiring humans.
    The Asian seer brought him to the end of the hall and turned right.
    Four doorways down and Kirev found himself following his new squad leader––and incidentally, the seer who’d recruited him––into an unlit room containing a long bay window, overlooking the ocean. The sun was down completely now, leaving only night on the other side of the glass. Even so, Kirev couldn’t help but stare at the image of the three-quarters moon hovering over the ocean, and the lit turrets of the hotel and restaurant of the Cliff House next to the Sutro Baths. He watched as coupes rolled up in front of the Cliff House itself, as well as a few taxis that dropped off well-dressed passengers.
    The Baths themselves remained lit too, and Kirev could see people down there, near the brightly illuminated doorways. He wondered if they were hotel guests as well, going for an evening swim, or if there was some other event going on inside.
    Once he’d shut the door behind them, Wreg turned, facing him.
    “You get the key?” he said, speaking Prexci.
    Jerking his eyes off the window, Kirev nodded, once. He opened his mouth to speak but the other didn’t give him a chance.
    Clicking his fingers, he motioned a “hurry up” gesture with his fingers.
    “Hand it over, brother. Please.”
    Fishing it out of his pants pocket, Kirev did as he was told.
    He watched as Wreg took that odd, cylindrical key and held it up to the light. He only looked at it for a few seconds before he fished around in his own pocket with one muscular hand. Kirev heard the jangle of metal pieces clanking together as the older seer pulled out a key ring with at least a dozen keys on it, all of them that same basic, cylindrical shape, although of different lengths and thicknesses and with different numbers and distributions of those needle-like spikes along the outside. Using a small penlight, Wreg held each of those cylinders up, one by one, looking for a match.
    Or maybe just a close approximation.
    Watching him compare the dummy keys with the real one, Kirev fought puzzlement.
    “Why do you need to do that?” he said, frowning. “I thought we were doing this tonight. He won’t miss the key tonight…I promise you, brother.”
    Wreg only clicked his fingers at him.
    “You got his ID badge?” he said, his voice a grunt.
    Fishing in the inside pocket of his suit coat, Kirev pulled that out, too, placing it in one of the seer’s tattooed hands.
    “We might not need this, but I appreciate the effort,” Wreg said warmly.  
    Kirev shrugged. “They have seers working security at the front doors,” he reminded him. “At least four. At all times. Plus the perimeter…”
    “Don’t worry about that, little brother. That part doesn’t worry me. Not unless they have military waiting for us out there when we arrive.”
    Kirev nodded, watching as the seer seemed to make up his mind about which dummy key to use. He continued to stand there, watching, as Wreg pulled the chosen key off the ring a second later, placing the real one carefully into an inside pocket of his coat.
    Kirev still didn’t know for sure what they were looking for.
    He’d already learned that in this operation, all information was need to know. Even the higher-ups like Wreg only seemed to know their piece of whatever puzzle was being dismantled. Kirev supposed that made sense…for a number of reasons. Not the least of which being the possibility of being caught by Seer Containment, or SCARB, the international unit charged with policing seers and “agitator